


Returning home

by VikingShadows



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Multi, Nico and the seven, Other, the seven + nico, underworld kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 08:39:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2144217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VikingShadows/pseuds/VikingShadows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico returns from the underworld and finds his friends by the beach. He feels conflicted whatever or not he should actually come back, but after being discovered, he might change his mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Returning home

**Author's Note:**

> Based on my own picture:  
> http://inalostcorner.tumblr.com/post/89272363379/i-have-this-cute-idea-that-after-blood-of-olympus

  
  
The wind was light, the sky was blue, and the clouds were big and white and moved in chunks of cotton above the beach. The sun was so bright and warm that every kid at camp-half-blood was running around in swimming trunks and flip-flops.  Chiron had even told everyone at camp; demigod, satyrs and flying bird ladies to help out putting sprinkles everywhere. It was a dry summer week, and not many were up for camp activities other than hanging out by the volleyball court or go swimming in the long island sound.  
   That’s where Nico found them; bathing and playing, goofing around in the water as Percy Jackson made another water tower. Shooting Tyson, Leo and Coach Hedge up in the air - Leo shot fireballs as he fell back down into the water, laughing until his mouth got full of water.  
   Nico shook his head where he stood by the tree, watching at his battle comrades from afar. He had been away a while, he wasn’t supposed to come back. But he had gotten lonely, and after talking with his father Hades about it in the most father-son-arguing kind of way… Well, he changed his mind.  
   The only problem was that he had told Jason he was never going to come back, and now he felt a bit stupid about it. He looked down at his shoes, and then back at the playing demigods. He bit his lip. What was he supposed to say? Had Jason told them everything…? Not that they would wonder where he had gone off to, it’s not like he was that big of a deal to them as they were to him. After all, if he died people might be sad for a few days and then they would be over it. He was pretty sure that after being away for half a year, nobody was actually even thinking about him anymore. And secondly, he didn’t want to disturb their fun times with having a dramatic entrance ‘ _hey guys I’m back from the underworld!_ ’ ‘ _yeah? Ok hi Nico, will you stay for lunch later?’_ Yeah, no big deal.  
   He sat down by the tree and watched them. He wasn’t sure how to approach them at all. He wasn’t even sure if he should approach them in the first place. What was he supposed to say? It’s not like they had come looking for him or were missing him- probably because he said he wanted to stay away and maybe they just respected his wishes? Ugh, this was so dumb.  
    
Piper was lying under the shades and was reading an adventure novel. She had gotten a bit sunburnt over her shoulders and decided to stay in the shade of a parasol. She sometimes looked up at the noise from the water; Hazel was flying up in the air with Jason on Percy’s water tower. They screamed in delight and fell splashing down into the water. Frank hadn’t yet dared to be blown into the air until both Hazel and Percy urged him too. As Frank fell down he transformed into a salmon and everyone laughed.  
   She smiled. And turned to look over the beach if any other camper had decided to join them down here rather than watch Solace and Travis have a radical game of volleyball by the big house. That’s when she saw the familiar lanky figure of Nico di Angelo sitting under a big tree and looking upset about something.  
   Piper was so shocked that she was actually not hallucinating this, so she shook Grover awake.  
“Grover, wake up!”  
“Wha- what is it?”  
“isn’t.. is that…” She pointed up at the tree at the boy under the shades.  
   Grover sat up and rubbed his eyes, blinking up at the boy. And sure enough, he was seeing the same thing as Piper.  
“Oh, Oh my gods!” Grover burst and stood up. He ran out in the sun. “Percy! Annabeth! Jason! Haz-“ He tripped into the sand and faceplanted. But at least he got their attention.  
   Jason was first to notice the shadow under the tree, and in turn recognize the pale face. Jason’s face lit up like a flashlight.  
“NICO!” He shouted and did his best to run in the water. “NICO! NICO!”  
   As Jason shouted, the rest of them saw where he was going too. Hazel gasped and was second to start shouting and running. Then Percy, and then the rest came along.  
   Nico instantly panicked. He looked around as if expecting a fire escape to run down, but there was none, so he stood up and debated with himself whatever or not to shadow travel to his cabin or to a cave in Alaska. He didn’t get much more time to think because even if Jason was first up on the beach to run for him – Piper tackled him.  
   Nico fell to the ground with a loud thud and Piper clung to him. “Don’t you dare get away this time!” she told him. And Nico’s head filled with the idea that; hey, their angry with you.  
“Let me go Piper!”  
“Hell no!” Piper struggled up to hold him down in the grass, then smiled at him. “You want to stay here.” Her voice was smooth and Nico’s body relaxed. “You want to sit here and wait nicely for everyone, right?”  
“yeah..” He wasn’t sure why Piper made so much sense right now, but she was definitely convincing him that staying right here was the best idea.  
“I will let you go now and you will be a really nice boy and let us all hug you okay?”  
“yeah, sure.” Wow, Piper was so smart. Whatever she said was the solution to his problems. She let him go and took his hand to help him up on his feet. He looked at her, suddenly realizing what she did to him. He couldn’t shake off her charm-speak yet, it clung into him like a hawk on a prey. But he furrowed his brows her way, letting her know he figured out what she did to him. Piper just smiled in a fond way and shrugged.  
   When a wet Jason was inches away from him, Nico knew he was screwed. The blonde super boy was going to scream and scold him, probably even hit him for running off like that. He closed his eyes and leaned away from him; waiting for the storm that never came.  
“Nico..” Jason’s voice sounded so sad that Nico had to look at him. And his eyes widened when he saw Jason in tears. But Nico got no room to ask why he was crying when Jason flung his arms around him. “You’re back!”  
   Piper smiled as the rest of the group, wet or not, threw their arms around the son of Hades. Hazel was handing out kisses to his cheek and kept scolding him (in the sweetest voice ever) that he was never allowed to disappear again. Percy’s hand found its way to his head and ruffled him, welcoming him back _home, home where he belonged_.  
   Nico blinked, he didn’t know how to react because this wasn’t at all what he had expected. Instead, a big lump in his chest just fell down, and he felt a warm feeling crawl up to his face. Something behind his eye sockets felt heated and he looked down, squeezing his eyes shut. He wouldn’t cry. He just wouldn’t. That until Hazel said; “We’ve missed you so much.”  
   He sobbed and lifts his hand up to cover his eyes, but it did nothing to stop the streams of salt roll down his face. He bit his lip and curled forward to hide. Hazel turned him towards her and hugged him, he hugged her back. Nico sobbed against her shoulder, not caring that she was wet and smelled of sea and sand.  
“Where did you go to?” Percy asked. “You just disappeared! We looked everywhere for you!”  
“You.. You were looking for me?” Nico sniffled and tried his best to gather himself. He hated to cry, especially in front of people.  
“Yes of course we did Nico! You’re our friend. We were worried sick about you! And you didn’t leave any messages you just poof; gone!” Percy huffed, not at all happy that his friend had just taken off without a word.  
“Oh…” Nico shuffled on his feet. “I was in the underworld..” He mumbled.  
“Ah, no wonder the iris messages wouldn’t get through.” Annabeth supposed. “if you could IM the underworld, demigods would talk to their dead beloved all the time.”  
“Yeah.” Nico looked away, rubbing a hand over his cheek one last time. “Sorry..”  
“Sorry isn’t good enough!” Percy crossed his arms and Nico flinched at the words. “You can’t run off like that again. Promise!”  
“I don’t think this is necessary.” Nico mumbled.  
   Hazel squeezed her brother’s hand. “Please Nico? Promise us, won’t you?”  
   Nico growled. “Wait a minute, why do you guys care so much anyway? There’s no reason for all of this affection.” He tugged at his jacket. “I’m not your friend; none of us ever had anything remotely close to a friendship. At best we were battle comrades but not beyond that. What does it matter if I’m here or not? All I ever was were a tool for the next quest.”  
“That’s not true!” Hazel said. “I love you Nico, you’re my brother and I care if you’re here or not!”  
“You’re my sister Hazel, and just because we are related you don’t have to care. You only ever stuck by me because I saved you from the underworld-“  
“How dare you Nico!” Hazel’s voice was so loaded that even Nico had to step back from her. “How dare you patronize my feelings?! Or any of our feelings! Do you have any idea for how long Jason, Percy and Piper were looking for you all over? Taking quests they thought they might bump into you at? Or Frank, you don’t consider him your friend after he saved us from being plants? And I Nico! I was worried sick about you!” She poked him hard on the chest. “Do you have any idea how many times I woke up crying from having dreams where you died?! Shame on you, Nico Di Angelo! Shame on you!” Nico had retreated deeper into his bomber jacket like a turtle, increasingly feeling guiltier.  
“Look..” He started. “You can’t blame me for that, how was I supposed to know you guys even cared or considered me-“  
“Did it ever cross your mind to stay and find out?!” She growled before Nico got control back. He turned away from her in defeat.  
“No but-“  
“But, But, But!” Hazel huffed. “No more ‘but’ from you mister! You’re staying here at camp-half-blood and that is final! Do you understand?” Nico just nodded like he had no choice. “Good!”  
   The group had all been a bit taken back by Hazel’s outburst but they all felt the same way about it. Nico had just gone away for reasons nobody could figure out.  
“So..” Jason said and Nico glanced his way. “What made you come back? You told me you’d never come back.”  
   At this Nico just turned back to his feet and shrugged. “I talked to dad about it. We had an argument…” He rubbed his neck and shrugged again. “Not much else to it.”  
“You argued with Hades?” Leo whistled. “Yikes, uh, he’s not like… Going to come after you now or something?”  
“No.” Nico said and stroke a line in the sand with his foot. “Dad and I just communicate through yelling at each other, that’s all. We don’t take each other’s bull so we argue; and he threatens to kill me and I threaten to haunt him, and then Persephone starts crying and we end up having to make peace to make her stop.”  
   Leo snorted. “The home life in the underworld is surprisingly lively.”  
   Nico rolled his eyes. “You tell me.”  
“So hold on.” Frank poked up. “So you actually, like, hang out with your dad and stuff? In his palace?”  
“Pretty much, yeah. I help out with quests too, but they usually take place in the realm of the underworld so…”  
“oh… well, that’s pretty cool. You must know it inside out by now.”  
“it’s a big place, I had to draw a map.”  
“You got a map of the underworld??” Frank smiled. “Dude, that’s awesome!”  
“Guys.” Jason said and raised his hands. “Guys, I think I speak for all of us when I ay that we are really, really happy that you are here Nico. And even more happy that you’re alive. Welcome home, pal.” He put a hand on Nico’s shoulder and grinned. “Now don’t leave us again, alright?”  
“Alright..” Nico mumbled.  
“Good.” The blond demigod swung his arm around Nico’s shoulder and pulled him along. “Who’s with me when I say we celebrate Nico’s return with a beach party?”  
   The gang raised their arms in the air and shouted with agreement. Nico blushed and let himself be led away by his friends. Hazel hooked his arm quickly and flashed him a forgiving smile, which he replied with a smile of sorry.  
   Nico’s return spread pretty fast in the camp, and Chiron came down to greet him welcome too. It became quickly apparent on Nico’s face and body language that he hadn’t expected people t be so happy to see him; because he was mostly quiet, blushing furiously, and avoided eye-contact as best he could.  
   Nico, Hazel and Piper ended up sitting on a towel under one of the parasols. Leo had made a bonfire on the beach that Reyna and Annabeth kept fueling as Tyson dumped down huge logs for everyone to sit on later. Chiron had told the rest of camp that there was a special celebration held down at the beach, so many of the other campers showed up to join and help out with setting up fires. There was two big fires, where all kinds of meat were being cooked. Leo’s siblings had brought down a DJ desk and music was being played, Leo also helped his siblings (along with Tyson and Frank) to set up lanterns across the beach with sticks. Very primitive but effective.  
   Hazel was cuddling up to her brother and Piper was updating Nico on what he had been missing out on. Like how she and Jason were still going steady, Annabeth was studying architecture in New Rome but still came to camp-half-blood to hang out with Percy and their friends. Leo had figured out how to IM the magical island of which Calypso, so they were talking about every day now (although he is still working on getting her out). She didn’t have to mention Frank and Hazel because Hazel gladly told her brother about how amazing and sweet Frank was.  
   Nico smiled.  
   He was glad he was talked into this by Persephone and his father. It turned out that he did belong here amongst the living, amongst his friends and his only living relative.  
   This was a life worth living. And as he sipped his cola and watched Percy and Jason joined a race where their feet had to be tied together, he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of his best friend and his former crush try to teamwork against the Stoll brothers. And he laughed so hard his sides hurt when the son of Poseidon and Jupiter fell flat into the sand and ended up crawling into third place.  
   Nico was happy he came back.  
   And he was never surer than he was now; he had come to stay. Right where he belonged.  
  
  
  
  



End file.
